It has been a strange week; The week of the big flush.

Sometimes photo-ops are just plain silly.

I’m not sure having the mayor trudge through the bowels of Montreal was such a good idea.

It just adds more of an air of spectacle to a situation which nobody wanted.

It seems we have now become a city of sewage and water experts.

It is truly regrettable that it had to come to this.

Yes we know that under the radar Montreal did even bigger dumps a decade ago.

I still cannot believe that this was the only solution.

What’s harder to stomach is that there seemed to be no proper planning, and furthermore I am not hearing many suggestions out there on how to prevent this from happening again.

What’s really annoying is that we would never have known about this had the opposition not noticed it.

It’s called transparency Mr. Mayor. It’s about being open.

It’s not about trying to pull a fast one and hoping that cheap stunts will ease the concern.

PQ to the rescue of Anglos

It’s been a strange week politically too.

You know you are in wonderland when the PQ comes to the aid of Anglos.

This episode of alternative reality was over the Liberal move to cancel an English school board by-election: a vote it had previously approved.

PQ education critic Alexandre Cloutier jumped to the defence of the English Montreal School Board and its right to the democratic process.

“The government say yes and now he’s changing his mind. That’s totally ridiculous,” said Cloutier.

Sure, it’s just politics, and the PQ would love to see no English Boards in Quebec, but it’s amusing in an odd sort of way.

By-election status quo

Four by-elections this week and the status quo all the way around.

3-1 Liberal and another sign the CAQ is on the fast-track to irrelevance.

The party has a new logo and a new mantra. Seems to me it has no idea which way to go and it’s showing.

It wants to be known as a nationalist party, staying in Canada but with the all-inclusive package, open buffet and open bar. Not quite fish not quite fowl.

But if results in the last election and in this week’s by-elections are any indication, the A in CAQ that stands for avenir or future and it seems to foretell one that is less than promising.

OQLF is a bad rash

Sometimes I think the language cops are like a bad rash that just won’t go away.

There are many ways to protect French without sticking it to the Anglos, but these guys never seem to learn.

They go after everyone with their bullying tactics; from cupcake cooks to community newspapers.

They have no shame.

The latest case in point is the hospital in Gaspé.

It’s a town with about 15 percent English speaking population, and from what I am told people pretty much live peacefully together

Now the OQLF is telling the hospital that English signs have to come down.

Can you just see the roving masses of lost Anglos trying to find elevators or radiology rooms?

The kicker is that Anglos who don’t understand French will be directed to English-speaking staff who have yellow stripes on their ID cards.

Franchement. Second Class indeed.

It’s petty, it’s stupid and it sends a clear message that the perception of health care access can be a function of language.

These keystone cops of language purity should be first on the list of austerity measures.

We can show them exit signs in any language they want.